Furnace room

The furnace room is a dedicated facility to support high temperature equipment such as plasma enhanced chemical vapor depositors (PE-CVD), thermal evaporators, muffle furnaces and convection ovens. Automation features have been implemented to accelerate efficiency and reduce the turnaround time. Experiments range from growing large area graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) and high entropy alloys (HEA) on different surfaces to heat treatment processes such annealing, baking and pyrolysis. Each reactor chamber is equipped with dedicated gas handling system to support process specific gases and facilitate synthesis either in ambient conditions or under vacuum. In the preliminary stage, the facility is heavily producing candidate materials to be investigated as potential Functional Intelligent Materials (FIM's). Whereas in the long term, as part of the proposed Materials Robotics Lab (MRL), it will house high throughput growth chambers which are expected to churn out materials with predesigned structures and functionalities, aided by Machine Learning (ML) capabilities.

All the furnaces in the following table are open for both I-FIM and non I-FIM users, subject to the booking and charging policy. Please contact Dr. Tummala Pinaka Pani and Dr. Sourav Mitra for enquiries on equipment usage or sample submission.

Two-Zone Split Tube Furnace

Two-Zone Split Tube Furnace

  • Max. temperature 1200°C
  • Heating zone length: 450 mm
  • With active cooling and turbomolecular pump
  • Gases: Ar, N2, H2 and CH4
  • Tubes: 1", 2" and 3" quartz tubes

Single-Zone Tube Furnace

Single-Zone Tube Furnace

  • Max. temperature 1600°C
  • Heating zone length: 450 mm
  • With active cooling and turbomolecular pump
  • Gases: Ar, N2, H2 and CH4
  • Tubes: 1" and 2" quartz and ceramic tubes

Customized PE-CVD

Customized PE-CVD

  • Three-zone split tube furnace
  • Max. temperature 1200°C
  • Heating zone length: 610 mm
  • With active cooling and turbomolecular pump
  • 500W plasma generator with dedicated 2" quartz tube for PE-CVD
  • Gases: Ar, N2 and H2
  • Tubes: 1" and 2" quartz and ceramic tubes

Single-Zone Tube Small Furnace

Single-Zone Tube Small Furnace

  • Max. temperature 1100°C
  • Heating zone length: 300 mm
  • With active cooling and turbomolecular pump
  • Gases: Ar, N2 and CH4
  • Tubes: 2" quartz

Vacuum Drying Oven

Vacuum Drying Oven

  • Volume: 25L
  • Max. temperature 250°C
  • Ultimate Pressure: <0.01 mbar
  • Under Fume hood conditions

Muffle Furnace No 1

Muffle Furnace No 1

  • Volume: 22L
  • Max. temperature 1100°C

Muffle Furnace No 2

Muffle Furnace No 2

  • Volume: 20L
  • Max. temperature 800°C

Convection Oven

Convection Oven

  • Volume: 120L
  • Max. temperature 300°C

Vacuum Deaeration Mixer

Vacuum Deaeration Mixer

  • Equipped with a special container and has the maximum capacity of mixing and defoaming of 350ml/350g
  • Can mix the materials at high-speed revolution (up to 2500rpm) under vacuum condition and achieve efficient defrosting effect noncontact mixing mode.

Cold Wall CVD Reactor

Design in progress

We are building a new synthesis system (including a cold wall chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactor) to facilitate growth of large area materials on 2"-4" wafers. The system would be equipped with robotic manipulators, nitrogen-purged load-lock mechanism, accentuated by in-line optical and conductivity measurement capabilities to enable high-throughput material design, synthesis and property screening.

The system includes various metal gasket seal fittings, pneumatic valves, mass flow controllers, pressure controllers, and other components, all operated remotely via custom made automatized control panels. Four source lines are available for solid precursors, allowing the deposition of different mono-elemental and two-dimensional materials such as graphene, TMDs, and high entropy alloys. A separate connection is available for direct characterization with the help of a robotic arm. Purified argon, nitrogen, and hydrogen are available as process gases.

Mass Spectrometer

Mass Spectrometer

The PM-QMSC-M2/M3 Online Gas Analysis System is a quadrupole mass spectrometer designed for real-time gas monitoring and analysis in industrial and laboratory applications. It provides fast and accurate qualitative and quantitative gas detection with a mass range of 1–200 amu and a detection limit of 0.1 ppm.

Key features include:

  • Open ion source with dual iridium filaments
  • Faraday/SEM dual detector system
  • Turbo molecular vacuum pump with oil-free dry backing pump
  • Stainless steel chamber with heating up to 200 °C
  • Multi-channel gas analysis (up to 200 channels)
  • Fast response time (<200 ms)
  • Ethernet communication and Windows-compatible software

FD-100S Vacuum Freeze Dryer

FD-100S Vacuum Freeze Dryer

The FD-100S Vacuum Freeze Dryer is a PLC-controlled pilot-scale lyophilization system designed for laboratory research, pharmaceutical applications, biological sample preservation, food processing, and small-batch production. It integrates in-situ freezing and vacuum drying with programmable temperature and vacuum control for reliable and efficient freeze-drying.

Key Specifications:

  • Freeze-drying area: 1.05 m²
  • Cold trap temperature: ≤ -80°C
  • Shelf temperature range: -56°C to +70°C
  • Ultimate vacuum: < 10 Pa
  • Water capture capacity: 15 kg/24 h
  • Shelf size: 550 × 480 mm
  • Shelf layers: 6 + 1
  • Shelf temperature uniformity: ≤ 2°C
  • Installed power: 9.5 kW (FD-100S), 10.5 kW (FD-100T)
  • Power supply: AC 380V/50Hz or AC 220V/50Hz
  • Operating temperature: 10°C–32°C
  • Relative humidity: ≤ 90%